Have You Ever Wondered ?

Where babies come from ... well not if you're

my age.  What a miracle reproduction of life is.

In Jr. college I had a zoology teacher that used

to demonstrate how amazing it was by telling

how great it would be to park your Chevy in

the garage at night. In the morning go out to

that garage and be surprised by a new Corvette

parked next to it's parent the Chevy.

Well, what's this leading to? Check out what

my band saw did. 

Oh OK, I got this baby band saw to take care of

some of the real small stuff I make. That big band

saw was just to much work when it was time to

change blades from 3/4" wide to 1/8" wide. Plus

those damn blades cost $27.00 for the big saw, 

and &11.00 for the small. I go through about

three a year. The new saw was $200.00, so in 

about four years it will pay for itself.

Busy, Busy, Busy in Snow Country

I haven't forgotten you out there. I've been shoveling

snow almost everyday for about a month. It's gotten

to the point where there is almost no place to put it.

My inventory is going to suffer I'm sure, but I'm

going to do my best for the shows that start at the

end of June. Our Schedule for 2011 is posted at

our web site. Please get over there and take a look.

The address is to the right.

Here's some photos of what I've been up to ...

 Here's the back of the house and deck. The metal roof has no place to slide.

I'm shoveling the snow away from the roof so it can slide.

The edge of the roof is about 12 feet from the ground.

My truck looks dwarfed in the driveway. 

See what I mean by there being no place to put the snow.

Our Daughter In Law Kat's Art Show

This is a shameless plug for our Daughter in Law Kat.

Click HERE to go to her Web Site, "Uberella".

A Quick Look At Bowl Turning

I was in a hurry to make this and I'm afraid it shows.

I'll probably redo it down the road. 

This is a very general over view of the process I go

through when I make a bowl.

I keep referring to an "Endplate" in the video. The proper

name is "Faceplate". The name "Endplate" is left over

from my telephone company days, and it has to do

with a splice case ... oh well.

A Woodworkers Work Is Never Done

These are frames for my daughter in law Kat. 

She is an artist who is listed on our links page

of our site. She will put canvas on these frames 

and paint a painting that is made up of many 

small frames that measure 8” X 8” square. I 

can’t wait to see it. 

This line is a link to her site called “Uberella”.

ZONK II !

YUP another Double-Double Dovetail Jewelry Box … 

Purple Heart and Maple

I make a lot of jewelry boxes with the main wood Maple 

and the trim Purple Heart. One is in the main signature 

photo on our web site. One day while pondering a 

Red Heart and Wenge box, I asked the little woman what 

she thought of a Purple Heart body and Maple trim. 

She said, “Dude! Go for it!” She almost never calls 

me Dude, so I knew I had to do it.

The inside is also pictured here. I used Maple for the 

tray and dividers. The tray sits on a runner front and 

back. They are, however, glued into the tray. The ladies 

like to pick up the tray by the dividers.

 

ZONK !

I couldn't help myself. I just had to make a red

and black Jewelry Box.

The red wood is called Red Heart from South

America, and the black is Wenge from West

Africa. These are the natural colors of these

woods. As usual I do not use any stains. If I

want a box to be a curtain color, I'll use a curtain

wood. One of you out there was with me when I

bought this wood. I warned you ... here it is. I also
used a little different style of handle.

The Last Show of the Season

Ah yes, this was the wrap up show of the summer arts and craft show season in the mountains. There were actually three shows in the north end of Lake Tahoe this Labor Day Weekend. There were also three at the south end of the lake I believe. At the north end we had Kings Beach, Northstar, and Downtown Truckee, which is where we were.

The show was an average recession show for us. At closing on Monday at 5:00 PM, you couldn’t wipe the smiles off of Sue’s and my faces. Now it’s time to build our inventories.

Enjoy the shots of beautiful Downtown Truckee ...

The Day In The Life Of A Divider II

We left off putting the strips for the dividers through the thickness planer. After these strips are milled down to 1/8 inch thick, we’re done. We then move to the table saw where the dividers are cut to length and notched so they fit together.

Pictured here above is table saw and my after market miter gauge on top of it. You can see the blade coming up through the yellow zero clearance insert.  These four dividers have been cut to length and the slots added.

Here are the dividers on the non-skid mat ready for sanding. These are the dividers for the box in the beginning of part one. 

Here are the dividers after sanding and put together. They will not be glued together so they can removed or rearranged. 

The finish has just been applied and the dividers are drying. After they sit over night, they will be ready for installation. I hope this helps you understand the process.

The Day In The Life Of A Divider

I’m going to do my best to show you how I make the dividers for my jewelry boxes. It took me years to develop the method and finished product you’ll see here. The photograph above is a finished Medium Striped Lid Jewelry Box with the dividers installed. Below will be the construction process.

This tool is a Jointer and in most woodworking shops a project starts here. This tool creates a straight edge that is 90 degrees to the sides. When I make dividers I will prepare both edges.

I then cut a 3/16” wide strip on the band saw with the jointed edge against the rip fence. The black object is a feather board. It’s used to keep the wood tight against the rip fence.

Here are a bunch of strips after the band saw process.

This tool is a planer and it’s used to take the pieces down to 1/8” thick. It gives me a smooth face parallel to the edge that was created on the jointer. The rest of this process will be completed in the next post.